Man arrested for child exploitation

John Kenneth Horton

A Covington man was been charged with over 100 counts of child exploitation after a technician found graphic images on his computer.

John Kenneth Horton, 33, reportedly took his computer to a local store to be worked on. According to Covington Police Lt. Paul Dailey, Horton told the technicians not to go through his computer, but to just look at the problem he was having. However, the store's policy is to backup all information on computers just in case something goes wrong. It was during this process that the images were discovered.

Dailey said that a "red flag" went up for the computer store employees when Horton was adamant that they not go through his computer, and that they contact the police department as soon as the images started to appear.

Because Horton works as a truck driver, detectives were anxious to get the computer to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's forensic examiners to be looked. Although there are currently 104 charges of sexual exploitation of children, Dailey said in the end they are likely looking at thousands of charges - one for every image on the computer.

According to Georgia law, "It is unlawful for any person knowingly to possess or control any material which depicts a minor or a portion of a minor's body engaged in any sexually explicit conduct... any person who violates a provision of this code section shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than five nor more than 20 years and by a fine of not more than $100,000."